Creationist Friendly Q&A

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Q: How does need for survival spawn intelligence/a better being?

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There is no "need", per se. Rather, our ancestors who were more intelligent survived at a higher rate than those who were less intelligent. That intelligence was at first genetically heritable, and afterwards passed down through language. Our cousins, the great apes, are also quite intelligent so it isn't as if intelligence evolved in a vacuum. It was a cummulative process.

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"If god created man from dirt, why are there still dirt around?"

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Dirt? Where?

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The subtlety of nature is far beyond that of sense or of the understanding; so that the specious meditations, speculations, and theories of mankind are but a kind of insanity, only there is no one to stand by and observe it.
-Francis Bacon "Novum Organum"

Why does something evolve?

The short answer is: because it can't NOT evolve. In some biological work the evolution of the subjects is a problem that is difficult to control.The tiny bit longer answer is:
Because living things do NOT reproduce exactly perfectly and they don't all produce the same number of descendants.A slightly different tack is:
If living things didn't evolve then there would be no life on earth. The environmental conditions have changed dramatically over time. The changes are either local or much wider and slowly or much faster. If living things were static they would have not survived those changes and we would not be here to ask the question. (The religiously inclined may take this as God's clever plan to have his creation survive in an interesting world.)Note:
THe something in the question is a population of living things.

A population of living things evolves because variation exists within that population. Some of the organisms have traits that make them more likely to reproduce and pass on their traits, while others pass on their traits at a reduced rate. As the environment changes, some organisms are able to reproduce better than others, and this weeds out the old traits that don't work in the new evironment.A constant source of variation comes in the form of mutations. Every organism has some mutations, some of which might help or hurt their chances of survival, but most of which don't affect anything.

from wikipedia If a Secular Humanist witnessed something supernatural, what would they do? Say they saw a ghost or pink fairies or a demonic possesion or ESP or telekinesis etc. Would they 'be awakened', so to speak, and believe in all/many supernatural things or would they just believe in only the one they witnessed or would they still believe in none?Did you see that movie Constantine, in the beginning when John C. exorcised that demon from the mexican girl? If a Secular Humanist was in that room, wouldn't they have to believe in demons? Think they could write it off as a hallucination or mass hysteria or something?Please respond.I hope posting in this thread doesn't label me as a creationist

Well, I do not know if I qualify as a seqular humanist... but if I saw a ghots or pink fairies, I would ask: What gives. Then I would make sure that I am not the only one who sees these specific ghosts or pink fiaries. Then, if I can ascertain that also other people are able to see these ghosts or pink fairies, I would probably conclude that they are not supernatural, but natural. Of course, then I would wonder why nobody had described, measure or recorded them before, ... and, in the end, I would probably win a Nobel Prize for the first description of pink fairies, and I would live happily ever after as the first and foremost authority on pink fairies... live would be good. By the way, what would you do if God appeared to you and proved to you that he/she does not exist?

If I saw anything 'supernatural', I'd look for a natural explanation for it. There always seems to be one.Brian.

If it was witnessed, how could it be supernatural? If those were witnessed, wouldn't they be in the natural world, and therefore natural?If what you mean is "what would happen if a secular humanist witnessed something that, hitherto, was not known to be part of nature", well, why would a secular humanist react differently to a new discovery than anybody else? Probably, but why would they have to believe that demons are supernatural?

None of the above.The reaction would (should?) be: "I don't know what I saw. I don't have enough evidence to draw a conclusion."It's okay to admit that you don't know something. Years later, you'll have a good story: "I saw something really wierd once...."

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

As others have noted, everytime this has happened there turned out to be a natural explanation for what was "seen". The only time that mysteries remain is when there is simply not enough information to come to any conclusion one way or the other.I know exactly what my reaction would be since I have had a number of somewhat odd experiences. It is always to gather as much information as possible. When this has been done things become less mysterious. Based on history I would expect this to continue.

If it broke the natural laws. Well, if something existed outside the natural world, in a supernatural realm, then it would seem that it couldn't be witnessed. But, what if it was capable of entering the natural world and being witness and then leaving the natural world and going back to the supernatural realm. Then it could be both supernatural and witnessable. Because of the things that the demon was capable of doing. Breaking the natural laws. Like controlling that girl and exiting that girl's body without tearing her skin, and being caught in the mirror and existing in two deminsions. And other crazy stuff like that.

How would you know if something actually broke a natural law? We develop our understanding of the laws based on what we observe, after all. Something that appears to violate natural law means that our understanding of the laws was incomplete, not that something miraculous has occured. Then, like everything else in that "supernatural realm", it would be part of the natural world. Why should I believe that those things are impossible according to natural law, if I'm watching something do them?